Toothbrush



April 16, 1963 L. M. COWAN 3,085,273

TOOTHBRUSH Filed Oct. 4, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 l0 M J IN VEN TOR.

LAVERNE M. COWAN ATTORNEY A ril 16, 1963 Filed Oct. 4, 1960 M. cowANTOOTHBRUSH 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

LAVERNE M. COWAN ATTORN EY United States Patent 3,085,273 TOUTHERUSHLaverne M. Cowan, 641 Locust Circle, Covington, Ga. Filed Oct. 4, 1968,Ser. No. 60,483 3 Claims. (Cl. 15-4167) This invention relates tobrushes for use in the oral cavity, and more particularly totoothbrushes.

In the past, many brushes have been developed to clean the teeth.Brushes found in the prior art have usually taken the form of a handleand head portion having a plurality of tufts of bristles insertedperpendicularly thereto. The tufts have been cut to various lengths toform profiles of convex, concave, or straight line configurations. Someof the prior art brushes have had longer tufts on one end so as tofacilitate reaching certain difficult areas of the oral cavity. Most ofthese brushes have proper application to some areas of the teeth, butnone of them is properly constructed for all areas of the oral cavitywithout complicated brushing technique.

At least one of the brushes in the prior art has been provided withtufts of bristles set at an angle to the head portion in an effort toreach all surfaces of the teeth. The principal difiiculty with suchprior art brush is that the tufts have the ends cut at an angle withrespect to the axis of the tuft, more specifically at an angle whichcauses the bristles to slide along the buccal surfaces, as they approachthe interproXimals so as to lie substantially tangent to the teeth wherethey are substantially ineffective.

Prior art brushes are capable of a fair amount of cleaning; however,even this is possible only with intricate manipulation which must belearned through special training. It has been found that with most ofthe prior art brushes reasonably thorough cleaning of the teeth may befacilitated by using Charters method, or vibratory technique. Whilethese procedures often yield fair results, many people are not educatedto used such methods, and many people, especially children, have muchdiliiculty in trying to learn these methods. Moreover, they are timeconsuming for the dentists to teach and the patients to learn.

The brush of the present invention is so constructed that, with a moresimple method of brushing the teeth, the bristles of the brushaccomplish better cleaning than they would if the above describedmethods were used. This is made possible by providing a handle and headhaving tufts of bristles angularly disposed thereto, and the ends of thetufts being cut perpendicularly to the longitudinal aXis of the tufts soas to permit a disposition of the bristles perpendicular to the toothsurface at the mesio-buccal, disto-buccal, mesio-lingual, disto-lingual,rnesio-labial and disto-labial surfaces.

It should be realized that everything from the greatest contour of thetooth to the occlusal of the tooth would be more or less self cleansingand do not present a major problem in cleaning. This self cleansing iseffected by normal tongue and cheek movements, and chewing and bitingaction. The problem, therefore, lies in cleaning the surfaces which suchactions do not normally reach, and it is these surfaces which the brushof the present invention is primarily intended to clean.

It is, therefore, an'object of the present invention to provide a brushwhich will effectively clean the teeth, especially at the mesio-buccal,disto-buccal, mesio-lingual, disto-lingual, mesio-labial anddistio-labial surfaces.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a brush whichhas its action concentrated on the surfaces of the teeth which are mostdifficult to clean.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a brush which maybe used to clean the tongue and massage gingival tissue without causingtrauma thereof.

3,085,273 Patented Apr. 16, 1963 And another object of the presentinvention is to provide a brush which will clean efficiently not onlynormal teeth but also teeth out of normal alignment, as well asorthodontic appliances.

Other and further objects of the present invention will become apparentfrom consideration of the following specification taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of one form of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view as seen from the bottom of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side elevational view of the head portion andbristles of the brush as shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a much enlarged view of two opposing tufts of bristles, andshowing the action of the bristles on the teeth.

Referring now to the drawings and to that particular embodiment chosenfor illustration, it will be seen that the brush comprises a handle 10having an elongated head portion 12 formed integrally therewith.Bristles, generally designated at 14, are mounted in the head portion12, and are formed in tufts, as tufts 15. The tufts 15 are arranged inparallel rows 16, 16' longitudinally of the head '12 and inclined in thedirection of the rows as pointed out below.

Though only two rows are here shown, the tufts of one row all beinginclined in one direction and those of the other row in the oppositedirection, it will be readily understood that additional rows may beprovided if desired. The rows to be added will preferably continue toalternate in the direction of inclination; the third row will be likethe first row; the fourth row will be like the second row, etc.

Attention is now directed to FIG. 3 which shows an enlarged view of thehead 12 and bristles 14. The tufts of bristles are at an acute angle tothe head 12, with the tufts of row 16 pointing toward the handle 10, androw 16 pointing away from the handle 10. The acute angle 0 in each caseshould be about 70. Since teeth do not have a flat surface, the anglemay be varied somewhat; however, if it be less than about 60", thebristles will lie too fiat to give proper scrubbing action, and if theangle 6 be more than about the bristles will be too nearly perpendicularto the head to give the effect to be hereinafter discussed.

The end plane 18 of each of the tufts of bristles is made by cutting thetufts perpendicularly to the axis of the tuft 15. Though the end planeis here shown as planar, it might be slightly concave to more nearlyconform with the tooth.

The row 16 of tufts 15 is offset from row 16' so that the tufts of onerow fully cross those of the other and the points of intersection of thetuft axes with their end planes lie substantially in right linestransverse to the rows and in a common plane. With this arrangement itwill be seen that the ends of the tufts overlap somewhat as viewed fromthe side, the longitudinal axes of the tufts converging at the workingends, as shown in FIG. 3. It will be noted that the staggeredarrangement and inclination of the tufts is such that a tuft in one rowcrosses a tuft in the adjacent row in X-fashion and then continues on tohave its longitudinal axis converge at the working tip with thelongitudinal axis of the tuft next adjacent to the aforementioned tuftin said adjacent row, the base and working tip of each tuft in any rowbeing substantially midway between the bases of tufts in the adjacentrow, all as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3.

Attention is now directed to FIG. 4 for a better understanding of thebrushing action involved. It should be realized that FIG. 4 shows thebristles at one instant.

The brushing action is constantly changing, so the drawing must beconsidered only as one representative step in the action of thebristles.

The tufts 15 are shown in FIG. 3 under no pressure. The particular tufts29, 21 in FIG. 4 are under slight pressure in the downward direction asshown in the drawing and are therefore distorted somewhat. The bristlesof the tuft 21 approach the mesio-buccal surface 24a of the tooth 24substantially perpendicular thereto so that substantially the entireflat working end of the tuft 21 engages the mesio-buccal surface of thetooth 24 for scrubbing action'thereon'as slight pressure causes theentire tuft 21 to spread somewhat; and, at the same time, the end of thetuft 2t likewise angled, but in the opposite direction, engages thedisto-buccal surface 31a of tooth 31 for scrubbing action thereagainst.Upon back and forth movement of the brush, it will be seen that thebristles may move further into the interproxirnal 26 for thoroughcleaning as the brush is moved up and down on the teeth. Since the tuftsare at an angle other than 90 to the head of the brush, the tufts arerespectively substantially perpendicular to the mesio-buccal anddistobuccal surfaces of the teeth, and the ends of the tufts lyingnormal to the longitudinal axes of the tufts are properly positioned formaximum scrubbing action on these tooth surfaces.

Bristles of the type used on toothbrushes do their best scrubbing on theend of the bristle rather than on the side. The tufts on the brush ofthe present invention are so formed that the ends of the tufts arenormal to the mesio-buccal, disto-buccal, mesio-lingual, disto-lingual,mesio-labial and disto-labial surfaces of the tooth, which are the mainareas that are not self-cleansing. However, with a sweeping action onthe tongue and gingival tissue, the tufts will slide over the surface,since the tissue surfaces are relatively fiat. Therefore, the action ofthe brush on tongue and gingival tissue is very gentle, and of asweeping nature and will not cause trauma.

With the foregoing in mind, it will be understood that the present brushmay be used in the conventional manner of brushing, sweeping in astraight line from gum toward the end of the teeth. The angulardisposition of the bristles will cause the tufts to reach to theinterproximals, and the tips will remain more or less perpendicular tothe surfaces difficult to clean. This holds true whether the brush beused on the buccal aspect or the lingual aspect. In either case thebristles will concentrate their most effective scrubbing action on themesio-buccal,

disto-buccal, mesio-lingual, disto-lingual, mesio-labial anddisto-labial surfaces while still acting on the buccal, lingual andocclusal surfaces sufliciently to clean them.

It will therefore be seen that the present invention provides a brushwhich will clean teeth more effectively and without special intricatemanipulation of the brush. Even children and dentally uneducated adultsmay use the brush with excellent results for its cleaning action issuperior to that of the prior art brushes.

It will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the brushherein depicted is by way of illustrating the general concept of theinvention, and is not meant to be restricted. Therefore, many changesand modifications may be made, and the full use of equivalents resortedto without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention asdefined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A brush for use in the oral cavity comprising a handle, a head formedon one end of said handle, and a plurality of uniform height tufts ofbristles mounted on said head and forming an angle of approximately withsaid head, the end of each tuft lying substantially in a plane to whichthe axis of the tuft is perpendicular, said tufts of bristles beingarranged in rows longitudinally of said head with the tufts in one rowinclined in one direction and the tufts in an adjacent row inclined inthe opposite direction, said tufts being mounted out of alignmenttransversely of said head and staggered so that a tuft in said one rowcrosses a tuft in said adjacent row in X-fashion and then continues onto partially overlap at the working tip with the working tip of the tuftnext adjacent to said tuft in said adjacent row.

2. A brush for use in the oral cavity comprising a handle, a head formedon one end of said handle, and a plurality of uniform height tufts ofbristles mounted on said head and forming an angle of approximately 70with said head, the end of each tuft lying substantially in a plane towhich the axis of the tuft is perpendicular, said tufts of bristlesbeing arranged in rows longitudinally of said head with the tufts in onerow inclined in one direction and the tufts in an adjacent row inclinedin the opposite direction, said tufts being mounted out of alignmenttransversely of said head and staggered so that a tuft in said one rowcrosses a tuft in said adjacent row in X- fashion and then continues onso as to converge toward the end portion of the tuft next adjacent tosaid tuft in said adjacent row, the end of said tuft in said one row andthe end of said tuft next adjacent said tuft in said adjacent rowterminating in mutually cooperative relation adjacent a transversevertical plane passing therebetween.

3. A brush for use in the oral cavity comprising a handle, a head formedon one end of said handle, and a plurality of uniform height tufts ofbristles mounted on said head and forming an angle of approximately 70with said head, the end of each tuft lying substantially in a plane towhich the axis of the tuft is perpendicular, said tufts of bristlesbeing arranged in rows longitudinally of said head with the tufts in onerow inclined in one direction and the tufts in an adjacent row inclinedin the op posite direction, said tufts being mounted out of alignmenttransversely of said head and staggered so that a tuft in said one rowcrosses a tuft in said adjacent rowin X-fashion and then continues on tohave its longitudinal axis converge at the working tip with thelongitudinal axis of the tuft next adjacent to said tuft in saidadjacent row.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,242,743 Brown May 20", 194-1 FOREIGN PATENTS 683,311 France Feb. 25,1930

2. A BRUSH FOR USE IN THE ORAL CAVITY COMPRISING A HANDLE, A HEAD FORMEDON ONE END OF SAID HANDLE, AND A PLURALITY OF UNIFORM HEIGHT TUFTS OFBRISTLES MOUNTED ON SAID HEAD AND FORMING AN ANGLE OF APPROXIMATELY 70*WITH SAID HEAD, THE END OF EACH TUFT LYING SUBSTANTIALLY IN A PLANE TOWHICH THE AXIS OF THE TUFT IS PERPENDICULAR, SAID TUFTS OF BRISTLESBEING ARRANGED IN ROWS LONGITUDINALLY OF SAID HEAD WITH THE TUFTS IN ONEROW INCLINED IN ONE DIRECTION AND THE TUFTS IN AN ADJACENT ROW INCLINEDIN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION, SAID TUFTS BEING MOUNTED OUT OF ALIGNMENTTRANSVERSELY OF SAID HEAD AND STAGGERED SO THAT A TUFT IN SAID ONE ROWCROSSES A TUFT IN SAID ADJACENT ROW IN XFASHION AND THEN CONTINUES ON SOAS TO CONVERGE TOWARD THE END PORTION OF THE TUFT NEXT ADJACENT TO SAIDTUFT IN SAID ADJACENT ROW, THE END OF SAID TUFT IN SAID ONE ROW AND THEEND OF SAID TUFT NEXT ADJACENT SAID TUFT IN SAID ADJACENT ROWTERMINATING IN MUTUALLY COOPERATIVE RELATION ADJACENT A TRANSVERSEVERTICAL PLANE PASSING THEREBETWEEN.